Sandybridge has prompted RAM vendors to focus on high speed, high capacity dual channel DIMM kits that were not very popular with H55/P55 users, but the H67/P67 boards will utilize. The Patriot Viper Xtreme Division 2 DDR3-1866 8GB Dual Channel Memory Kit is a little faster than many dual channel kits and that has made the timings different as well, at 9-11-9-27.

"A little while ago we took a look at Patriot’s Viper Xtreme triple channel memory that is designed for Intel X58 systems. Today we are checking out the Viper Xtreme Division 2 Edition memory which is designed for Intel’s 2nd generation “Sandy Bridge” Core processors. This memory has been rigorously tested and validated on the Intel 6 Series platform to achieve maximum performance and stability. The Division 2 memory has all of the same features as the original Viper Xtreme memory like the 6 gram copper core and aircraft-grade aluminum heatspreaders. Today we will be puttin g the 8GB DDR3-1866 kit to the test."

OCIA recently revisited the old conundrum, is it better to buy or overclock the frequency of your DIMMs as high as possible, or to stick with the lowest latency possible? It all comes down to the memory bandwidth, as these values are the variable which affect how many bits can flow through your RAM in a certain period of time. To make it easier on those just starting to delve into this topic, OCIA's table of JEDEC
specifications will help you on your way to picking the best RAM.

Triple channel memory has had slow uptake thanks to the limited number of processors that will support it. However, those with X58 boards and a Bloomfield, Gulftown or newer Xeon CPU do enjoy the lowered memory latency that using DDR3 in triple channel mode and manufacturers are still putting out kits. For those with a definite need for large pools of RAM, the new Corsair Vengence 12GB kit<

Silicon Power have been around for 7 years and mostly have provided CF card but are extending their expertise to SSDs and RAM. In this particular review it is the XPower DDR3 2000 RAM, nothing to do with MSI even with a name similar to a particular Big Bang series motherboard. The stats are right, a pair of XMP profiles will have you running at either DDR3-1800 @ 9-9-9-24 or DDR3-2000 @ 9-9-9-27, at least in theory. What Bjorn3D found was that the XMP profiles would not work properly for them and they had

Over at OC3D they got their hands on Mushkin's new PC16000 Radioactive 6GB RAM kit, with a very unique colour scheme. The yellow colour is reminiscent of glow in the dark plastic and will certainly stand out in any case, though likely clashing with some of the more colourful motherboards available nowadays. You can even expect a decent overclock from them as well.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing that AnandTech found about the Acer Aspire 5551G-4591
is that it is out of stock everywhere. Consider the low expectations that they had walking into the review that almost rates as a stellar recommendation; the fact that AnandTech actually went looking for the device puts this Aspire miles ahead of past models. It is not a high powered notebook, it is better compared to Atom+ION netbooks as opposed to gaming laptops with switchable GPUs.

The 4GB OCZ Blade ST 2000MHz Low Voltage DDR3 kit
has quite a bit going for it, from its 9-9-9-24 timings @ 1.65v to the ease it adds to those looking to overclock an LGA1156 CPU. A little tweaking to the BCLK is much easier when your RAM is happy to run at those speeds, removing it as a cause of instability when you are overclocking. Drop by BenchMark Reviews to see these DIMMs in action.

The G.Skill FLARE PC3-16000
kit is a pair of 2GB DIMMs running at 2000MHz and running you about $180. The high price is the penalty you face for trying to grab some of the fastest RAM available. Once OC3D popped open the kit the AM3 branding seemed a little off as no matter what they tried they could not get these DIMMs runnin

Picking up a Core i3, i5 or certain i7 CPUs does limit you to dual channel memory if you use an H55 based board and many feel that going that route limits your RAM. Really, the difference between triple channel and dual channel RAM is minuscule and
there is no reason you can't have large amounts of RAM on a dual channel system. G.Skill makes this obvious with their 8GB Trident 2000 MHz DD

DDR3 is not really that old but has finally overtaken DDR2 for the first choice in memory for new systems. Just like its predecessors, as the DDR3 standard matures manufacturers can get higher frequencies out of their DIMMs and of course charge a premium for those high speed kits. Kingston has been rather forceful in pushing DDR3 to its current limitations and they have just released two new kits. The highest end kit hit 2.5GHz @ 9-11-9-27 during the quick overclock

HWBot is a board that keeps track of the successes that people have had overclocking various components and the benchmarks generated by those overclocks. MADSHRIMPS delves into one particular component, the RAM and looks at the three variables that generate the most pertinent to overclocking RAM, the Frequency, tCL and tRCD. There is a bit of math you need to follow in order to see how they arrived at the ratings on the charts at the end of the article, but then again if you want to get the b

X-bit Labs wanted to see what the integrated memory controller on Clarkdale chips is capable of and so tested it with RAM at speeds of 1333MHz, 1600MHz and 2000MHz with two different timings at each speed. As it turns out, the difference in performance between the three speeds was rather small, while the price of RAM kits rises noticeably. When they tried overclocking the Core i5-655K the results became more interesting and rather damning for the 1600MHz kit. Their findings

The Mushkin Blackline 12GB kit consists of three 4GB 1600MHz DIMMs running at 9-9-9-24 which lets you up the total memory available to your system without resorting to six DIMMs. That extra density doesn't seem to have much of an effect on overclocking, Overclock3D took the DIMMs past 1900MHz after they loosened the timings a bit. Check out how it changed the performance in the full review.